Until recently, social media has been largely experimental for most large corporations. No more, according to a new study from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research.
The study of Fortune 500 companies showed that not only Facebook and Twitter but the venerable social medium of blogging all have substantial roles among the largest companies:
- 28% of companies this year had corporate blogs, a big rise from 23% in 2011 and in fact the largest rise in blog usage since 2008. The gap with smaller, “Inc. 500″ firms, 37% of which were using blogs last year, appears to be closing.
- 73% have at least somewhat active Twitter accounts on which tweets appear at least once a month, up 11% from a year ago.
- 66% of companies have a Facebook page, up 8% from last year.
- 62% have YouTube accounts this year, the first time the researchers tracked YouTube usage).
- Only 2% of large companies have Pinterest accounts so far.
Of course, none of these stats reveal how well these companies use social media–and I suspect many of them are still deep in learning mode.
Here’s a nifty infographic the researchers prepared, with more details on usage in various industries:
Click Image To Enlarge
COMMENTARY: Although the majority of Fortune 500 companies now have a social media presence of some kind, whether a page on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, very few of them are spending significant amounts on social media advertising. Most of them are using Facebook for branding, engaging with fans and customers and improving customer support. Most Fortune 500 companies are still grappling with how best to use social media, how to measure ad effectivness and ROIs.
Courtesy of an article dated September 7, 2012 appearing in Forbes
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